These kinds of discussions pop up all the time and most of them aren’t worth following. This one, though, includes a screenshot from AA.com and detailed “inside” info regarding the processing of the upgrade list.

Before sharing it, I decided to head over the the Traveling Better forum to see if JonNYC had commented on it, this is some of what he wrote, “This one will, indeed, be interesting. Since previous FT reports were [completely disproved, in this thread] ..but this guy has access to jetnet and is quite clearly [much better informed]- will be curious to see if any clarity or clarification can be brought to the subject.”

American has always sold Load Factor Based Upgrades (LFBU) to non-elite passengers at the airport check-in kiosk, but only a few hours before a fight and after the elite upgrade list cleared. If this is true, then something has changed. It’s certainly something to follow…

I was offered upgrade at check-in 24 hours prior without status. I took it just to see what AA F was like and it prompted me to switch after they offered the status match. Is a that not supposed to happen?

@ Gene – Hopefully, it’s a software error and not a change in AA’s policy.

Delta is my backup airline but I’m no fan of their upgrade policies. Upgrade priority is based on the fare class purchased within each status grouping. Also, companion upgrades clear last, so it’s rare that you’ll be able to travel in the same cabin with a colleague.

I’ve always thought that AA had a much better system, but then I’m sure that Delta Points and others might disagree. I guess it’s just what you most used to…

I know nothing about UA except that they’ve had a lot of challenges lately.

I’d be careful about assuming those incidents in post #87 mentioned above are the same as this. As JonNYC points on his post, most of those were shown later to have been completely explainable and not instances where elites were bumped by LFBU.